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Feel free to utilize the info on the TIPS section as a complement to this series.

Feel free to share your theories and speculations. In fact, I encourage you to do so as this is what makes this series interesting.

I am designating Sushi-Y and Freakman to lead the discussion in the correct path without spoilers as they have played the game in advance. I put confidence in them that they will recognize a member has spilled the beans too far if any other members has begun to play the game.

SPOILERS FAR ADVANCED THAN THE CURRENT AIRED ANIME EPISODE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. THIS INCLUDES THOSE IN SPOILER TAGS!!!. People tend to peek at spoiler tags; especially when they do not know such tag is meant for the episode, only to find it spilling the beans too far advanced in the game storyline.

Hrm, I can't really say I'm happy with this episode. Mostly because they reused a lot of cels from episode 8 and they switched back to some of the weird animators from ep 19.

Also, the last scene of Wakanagashi-hen is still unsolved. Argh.

Still, there are a few vital clues:

Spoiler for plot:

So Satoko really believes Satoshi ran away and also Mion believes Satoshi was pardoned by Onibaba. Which means either he really did just run away or someone besides the Sonozakis or Hojous is behind it.

Why do they have to keeping making Shion make all those weird faces? It was scary the first time, creepy the second time, but by the 99th time, it's just plain stupid.

*10 minutes into the episode*

For once they got the essence of a memorable scene right, and they had to ruin it with ablsolutely abysmal music running in the background. Will it kill to get one dramatic sad music in the anime!?

SATOKO~~~

*12 minutes in*

Omigod they skipped Shion's monologue during the confession scene.

Actually, no, they just skipped the confession scene outright.

マジかこれ

*20 minutes in*

...Whatever happened to Shion pretending to let Mion escape, and then taking out the taser AFTER Mion was already on the ladder, and all the crying and and pleading and...

*21 minutes in*

Just like before, they still forfeited the doll scene. It's not hard to portray Keiichi with the doll, wishing that he could give it to Mion and make things right the second time. I really don't know why they opted to not do it. The doll's significance was proven earlier in the episode too.

*22 minutes in*

WAIT.

このアニメ： 「生まれてきてごめんなさい」

A big pat on the back for Yukino Satsuki and Kanai Mika, their actings gave me something to praise in this episode.

I rewatched most of the relevant question arc episodes last week after seeing episode 20, and this episode went pretty much as I anticipated...although I imagine the description in the sound novel of the torture scene with Satoko must have been really brutal indeed.

I did have some theories (albeit sloppy ones) about how the final Watanagshi-hen scene would be explained, so I was rather disappointed that it wasn't at all. Was this originally explained in this arc in the sound novel, or was it left for a later answer arc like this one?

My own best thought was that Shion survived the fall with severe brain trauma and was mistaken for dead, leaving her "animated corpse" to still go after Keiichi one last time. Of course this still leaves open the questions about Takano's body (dead 24 hrs before the break-in), the contents and purpose of the mysterious syringe, and Satoshi's real whereabouts...but that sounds like all material for a later answer arc to reveal along with the many questions left from the other three arcs.

I wish that they spent some time reanimating the bad animation they reused rather than recycle it as-is...I have a bad feeling that the DVD release won't get the much needed do-over it deserves. That's all the more frustrating given that Onikakushi-hen seemed to be animated and directed so well in contrast to the rest of the series. Did they lose an animation director or a contract with a good subcontractor or something? With any luck, perhaps the final arc will at least be handled by whoever was responsible for getting Onikakushi-hen right...

The last scene in Watanagashi was hallucination on Keiichi's part.
Both sisters are dead at the time it happens.

Spoiler:

So, K1 is in a hospital bed and has not shown any signs of insanity thus far in this arc. He has just heard that both twins are dead. After Ooishi leaves, he suddenly hallucinates a zombie Mion, who kills him in his imagination. However, the only way this would actually kill him is shock. Thinking about what he has gone through so far, somehow I don't think shock would kill him.

Hey, if I lived in Hinamizawa and saw all of this crazyness, I wouldn't find a zombie all that hard to believe.

BTW, did Mion lie to try to get away, or was she telling the true. If Mion was telling the truth and Onibaba did not lie, then Shion just destroy all her happiness by becoming a dumb fucking murderer. Or that instead of beating Oyashiro sama, she became an agent of him, an other poetic justice.

One last thing, the episode was not as good as the previous one because I just think it is too rush. Can anyone who played the game kindly fill in some of the gaps in the episode?

BTW, this arc is a little different from arc 2, I wonder if the difference are significant in that they give us clue on something important, or that the author just forgot.

I wish that they spent some time reanimating the bad animation they reused rather than recycle it as-is...I have a bad feeling that the DVD release won't get the much needed do-over it deserves. That's all the more frustrating given that Onikakushi-hen seemed to be animated and directed so well in contrast to the rest of the series. Did they lose an animation director or a contract with a good subcontractor or something? With any luck, perhaps the final arc will at least be handled by whoever was responsible for getting Onikakushi-hen right...

Got the DVD release and I can say that they did redo some of the animation (though, not much since this is Onikakushi-hen) so there's hope they fix up some inconsistencies in the other arcs. Also there's less "censoring", with blood being more prominent.

I thought it was just that her clothes got caught on some nail/sharp object ;o
Edit: Actually... I can't tell if it's her gun or something else getting stuck...

Anyway, awesome epsiode. But Shion hate++ after Satoko scene and then the convo between Mion and Shion. :[ I was kinda getting tired of her weird reasoning for killing all those people.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shion

Hello! I kill everyone because I'm convinced that they killed my precious Satoshi-kun and took him away from me even though I don't have solid evidence!

Spoiler:

Also one of the things that I thought was interesting was what she said at the end. Something like... "gomen, kondo wa machigai nai yo kitto". *cough*Is she referring to Rika's powers...?*cough* Or is she really just regretting everything that she's done?

vvv I think the voices she was hearing was her own (telling people to die :s). It's guilt I guess? Maybe it finally clicked for her that just maybe the people she killed had nothing to do with Satoshi going away.

the ep was awesome^^
although it was rushed I still enjoyed it!
those weird faces are actually starting to annoy me rather than creeping me out!!
I kinda imagined Shion died when trying to run away from the footsteps and I wasn't that far from the truth. she started hearing Mion's voice and went to do what we already know and on her way back she...died in a stupid way I guess!!

Why do they have to keeping making Shion make all those weird faces? It was scary the first time, creepy the second time, but by the 99th time, it's just plain stupid.

*10 minutes into the episode*

For once they got the essence of a memorable scene right, and they had to ruin it with ablsolutely abysmal music running in the background. Will it kill to get one dramatic sad music in the anime!?

SATOKO~~~

*12 minutes in*

Omigod they skipped Shion's monologue during the confession scene.

Actually, no, they just skipped the confession scene outright.

マジかこれ

*20 minutes in*

...Whatever happened to Shion pretending to let Mion escape, and then taking out the taser AFTER Mion was already on the ladder, and all the crying and and pleading and...

*21 minutes in*

Just like before, they still forfeited the doll scene. It's not hard to portray Keiichi with the doll, wishing that he could give it to Mion and make things right the second time. I really don't know why they opted to not do it. The doll's significance was proven earlier in the episode too.

*22 minutes in*

WAIT.

このアニメ： 「生まれてきてごめんなさい」

A big pat on the back for Yukino Satsuki and Kanai Mika, their actings gave me something to praise in this episode.

I haven't seen the EP yet, but OMG WTF!
THEY SKIP THE MONOLOUGE?! NO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THEY SKIP THE DOLL SCENE TOO?!

I'm going to cry now. They just skip my favorite scene in this entire arc. Well, at least Sushi-Y is somewhat satisfied over the Satoko scene so I guess not all is lost.

I'm hoping they did the monologue during K1's torture and Mion's 1,000 gomenasai pleas during the Satoko incident (that was so f'd up, Shion).

Spoiler for what I believe they skipped:

So, the confession monologue... this what Shion was doing through out it.
She was BS'ing most of it. She was seeing how far she can BS before K1 and Rena will figure out that she wasn't Mion. Even that last phone call to K1 the night beforehand. She slip somethings here and there to get K1 to realize that she was Shion. Obviously, she was extremely disappointed that they couldn't figure out the "game" (points to under his avatar). After the Satoko scene, Shion wanted to be stopped, she wanted to be caught, before she went completely mad.

The Doll scene
(well, this is part of the epilogue - I believe in the actual text the names are switched, b/c at this time Shion believes she's Mion but to keep it simple I keeping the names)

After she kills Mion and is "saved" by the police, the police try questioning her. But Shion faked being mentally unstable... at first. But eventually she starts hearing Mion's voice, arguing with her constantly. Mion won't leave her alone. Mion feels it's not fair for her to live when she died. Mion is waiting for her to die. So Shion thought she'll get the better of her. While arguing with Mion she sneaks out of her apartment (thinking Mion didn't realize that she had left), gets into Onibaba's car and drives to K1 house. When she first sees K1 she forgets her anger. But when K1 comes out of the house with the doll in his hand, she explodes. Mion is so unfair. K1 is still thinking of Mion. What does Shion have? Nothing. Shion goes back to her demented state and stabs K1 as she originally planned. Then she screams "I made it in time (before Mion killed me). I got my revenge (on Mion). I killed everyone I wanted (take that Mion!)" - the monologue there was something along those lines.

I haven't seen the EP yet, but OMG WTF!
THEY SKIP THE MONOLOUGE?! NO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THEY SKIP THE DOLL SCENE TOO?!

I'm going to cry now. They just skip my favorite scene in this entire arc. Well, at least Sushi-Y is somewhat satisfied over the Satoko scene so I guess not all is lost.

I'm hoping they did the monologue during K1's torture and Mion's 1,000 gomenasai pleas during the Satoko incident (that was so f'd up, Shion).

Spoiler for what I believe they skipped:

So, the confession monologue... this what Shion was doing through out it.
She was BS'ing most of it. She was seeing how far she can BS before K1 and Rena will figure out that she wasn't Mion. Even that last phone call to K1 the night beforehand. She slip somethings here and there to get K1 to realize that she was Shion. Obviously, she was extremely disappointed that they couldn't figure out the "game" (points to under his avatar). After the Satoko scene, Shion wanted to be stopped, she wanted to be caught, before she went completely mad.

The Doll scene
(well, this is part of the epilogue - I believe in the actual text the names are switched, b/c at this time Shion believes she's Mion but to keep it simple I keeping the names)

After she kills Mion and is "saved" by the police, the police try questioning her. But Shion faked being mentally unstable... at first. But eventually she starts hearing Mion's voice, arguing with her constantly. Mion won't leave her alone. Mion feels it's not fair for her to live when she died. Mion is waiting for her to die. So Shion thought she'll get the better of her. While arguing with Mion she sneaks out of her apartment (thinking Mion didn't realize that she had left), gets into Onibaba's car and drives to K1 house. When she first sees K1 she forgets her anger. But when K1 comes out of the house with the doll in his hand, she explodes. Mion is so unfair. K1 is still thinking of Mion. What does Shion have? Nothing. Shion goes back to her demented state and stabs K1 as she originally planned. Then she screams "I made it in time (before Mion killed me). I got my revenge (on Mion). I killed everyone I wanted (take that Mion!)" - the monologue there was something along those lines.

*sigh*

Wow that's make much more sense!!!

Oh Shit!! I just realize the Moon people took Satoshi!!! Oh the horrible Moon people, why why you guys did that!!!

I haven't seen the EP yet, but OMG WTF!
THEY SKIP THE MONOLOUGE?! NO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THEY SKIP THE DOLL SCENE TOO?!

I'm going to cry now. They just skip my favorite scene in this entire arc. Well, at least Sushi-Y is somewhat satisfied over the Satoko scene so I guess not all is lost.

I'm hoping they did the monologue during K1's torture and Mion's 1,000 gomenasai pleas during the Satoko incident (that was so f'd up, Shion).

Spoiler for what I believe they skipped:

So, the confession monologue... this what Shion was doing through out it.
She was BS'ing most of it. She was seeing how far she can BS before K1 and Rena will figure out that she wasn't Mion. Even that last phone call to K1 the night beforehand. She slip somethings here and there to get K1 to realize that she was Shion. Obviously, she was extremely disappointed that they couldn't figure out the "game" (points to under his avatar). After the Satoko scene, Shion wanted to be stopped, she wanted to be caught, before she went completely mad.

The Doll scene
(well, this is part of the epilogue - I believe in the actual text the names are switched, b/c at this time Shion believes she's Mion but to keep it simple I keeping the names)

After she kills Mion and is "saved" by the police, the police try questioning her. But Shion faked being mentally unstable... at first. But eventually she starts hearing Mion's voice, arguing with her constantly. Mion won't leave her alone. Mion feels it's not fair for her to live when she died. Mion is waiting for her to die. So Shion thought she'll get the better of her. While arguing with Mion she sneaks out of her apartment (thinking Mion didn't realize that she had left), gets into Onibaba's car and drives to K1 house. When she first sees K1 she forgets her anger. But when K1 comes out of the house with the doll in his hand, she explodes. Mion is so unfair. K1 is still thinking of Mion. What does Shion have? Nothing. Shion goes back to her demented state and stabs K1 as she originally planned. Then she screams "I made it in time (before Mion killed me). I got my revenge (on Mion). I killed everyone I wanted (take that Mion!)" - the monologue there was something along those lines.

*sigh*

I haven't watched the raw yet, but they skipped the doll scene in episode 8, so I don't think it would've made a lot of sense to add the doll scene in the answer arc when it wasn't even in the question arc. Or maybe I'm just missing something?

Mediocre. I officially proclaim that Higurashi be remade by Kyo-Ani.
Someone should set up a site dedicated for Higurashi remake by Kyo-Ani. ww
If otakus can sway Kyo-Ani to do a Kanon remake, then it's possible...maybe.

I cannot fathom why they left out the monologue, more so the other main twist of Shion/Mion switching.

For at least once, do the epilogue scenes rather than ending it abruptly. Where's Shion's dream? Or the heart-wrenching note of "I'm sorry for ever been born?" An addition of that with dai's you would made a better closure on Meakashi.

Much like Frederica's poem for Tsumihoroboshi, those over-used facial contortions are:
1st time, interesting
2nd time, it gets tiring
3rd time, it's just sick
and by the nth time, it loses its value to become a comical.

The fateful doll scene at the end. They messed that up in Watanagashi, they still messed it up in Meakashi.

Five more episodes to go; how they can fit all of Tsumihoroboshi, I don't know. But if they screw up the ----------------, I will be very disappointed.

I'm going to cry now. They just skip my favorite scene in this entire arc. Well, at least Sushi-Y is somewhat satisfied over the Satoko scene so I guess not all is lost.

Who said I'm satisfied?

Spoiler for Satoko scene:

The one line I wanted to hear the most from Satoko during that scene was her final line,
「さぁいくらでも試してみろ！！ 私は泣かない、涙も見せない！！！ 北条沙都子がどれほどの強さを持つか 、試してみろおおぉおおぉお！！！」

Nope, it wasn't there. I fell in love with her with that line, and they cut it.

More importantly, that stupid ambient music really pissed me off. Way to ruin your own dramatic scene, Deen.

Mion's 1000 gomennasai was nice though. *sigh*

The most famous line in the entire Meakashi-hen,

「生まれてきてごめんなさい」

Not there. I can forgive Deen for everything else in the episode, but not this one. The final scene was the one scene where Shion finally got to admit and make up for the sins she commited, and they ended it with nothing but ONE line and a splat.

Spoiler for what they skipped:

Shion slipped from the balcany, and fell down onto a concrete roof a few floors below, and was mortally wounded. That's when her mind finally became clear, and she began talking and apologizing to Satoshi-kun for everything she did in this story, while reminiscing and regretting those happy days that she lost. In the end, Shion ended her own life by crawling to the edge of the roof, and tossed herself off, while saying that famous line: "I'm sorry for being born".

This anime is completely non-gamer oriented. I looked around for comments on the net and found pretty much a negative linear relationship between the amount of knowledge you have on the game and how much you enjoy the anime: if you don't know anything about the game, you can enjoy the anime to it's fullest. If you are a gamer who has played through the whole game, then this anime is mediocre at best, unbearable to watch at worst.

At the rate they're cutting out famous lines and scenes, I'm seriously concerned for Tsumihoroboshi-hen's finale now. If they dare to cut out Rika's line in my signature, I'll explode.